Golhke Pools in Denton, Texas, used to employ a full-time person whose job was to process paperwork. At the end of the day, the technicians would bring in their stack of work orders and job reports, and the paper processing employee would sit there completing the jobs, billing out the inventory, then filing the paperwork away in one of many filing cabinets that filled an entire office space. Sometimes, it could be a long night for that individual.
“If we were still doing that, it would be two to three people working that job today,” says service manager Nick Day.
Since then, the company has moved all its paperwork to a cloud-based digital format with Evosus and eliminated the paper-processing position (as well as all the filing cabinets in its office). It handed each of its repair techs a laptop and its pool technicians a mobile app to install on their smartphones, and the techs would record the former paperwork, in digital format, and in real-time. The entire process is far more streamlined than when it was paper-based. While there’s a learning curve, the techs agree it’s a much smoother operation than fumbling with paper orders and notes.
Pool techs receive their jobs for the day and instructions, record test results, add inventory, search prices, take and store pictures of the pool on the customer’s individual account, and provides management with real-time information on which jobs were completed and what needs there may be. They also send an automatic email to the customers with their water chemical readings, any updates and notes, and a picture of the pool, which Day says people appreciate seeing.
Pool repair techs can receive service orders and examine a customer’s history, write service tickets, place special orders, process warranty claims, and more, right from their truck. “They get it done, job by job, and not have to wait until the end of the day,” Day says. “If we need a special-order item, and it was morning, we could get the order placed and fix it the same day.” The company also uses the program to store all its documents, vendor catalogs, training manuals, and other items that technicians require immediate access to while on the job.
Day says the transitions to Evosus’ pool & spa business software and product were simple, and then the company bought inexpensive laptops for the repair techs. With data hosted entirely on the cloud, the technology works far faster and more reliably than if hosted on an office server, which has limited bandwidth and sometimes experiences outages. “The nice thing about the cloud is you basically just have to have internet access to get to your stuff and doesn’t take a real expensive computer,” Day says. Maintenance technicians already use their own phones for the job and just install and access the mobile app.
Customers seem to be happy with the reliability of the service techs, thanks to their digital accessibility. “Speed is the biggest advantage,” Day says. “I think our customers enjoy getting information faster."
